3,000 O.C. Marines Tagged for Mission : Military: Troops from Tustin, El Toro prepare for Somalia. Their families prepare for another lonely holiday.

As many as 3,000 Marines from two Orange County air stations will be part of the U.S. force headed to Somalia to provide safe passage for food and other supplies to millions of starving people.

Informed of their mission only in the past few days, Marines at the Tustin and El Toro Marine Corps air stations spent Saturday readying equipment and preparing families for another lonely holiday season. Many of the Marines tabbed for duty in Somalia were among those deployed for prolonged overseas tours during Operation Desert Storm two years ago.

“I can’t believe it,” said Lorie Waters, who is eight months’ pregnant and will deliver her second child in two years with her husband, Derral, an Orange County-based Marine, gone. He missed the birth of their last child during the war with Iraq. “It’s like deja vu and kind of depressing. I’m going to be here all alone with two kids. If we just had a little more notice.”

Lance Cpl. Sam Cervantes, another Gulf War veteran, this time leaves behind a bride of only two weeks, forcing an indefinite delay of their planned Christmas honeymoon.

“The first time (his Kuwait assignment), it was really no big deal,” Cervantes said. “Sure, I was scared and there was a lot of confusion. But now, I have to worry about my wife. She’s been crying and she is confused.”

At least eight military bases in the Southland will be sending personnel to Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope announced Friday by President Bush.

Marines from the Tustin and El Toro stations, Camp Pendleton in north San Diego County and the Marine Corps Combat Center in Twentynine Palms will be among 16,000 West Coast Marines heading for Somalia.

Marine spokeswoman Capt. Betsy Sweatt said no timetable has been established for the departure of the 3rd Marine Air Wing, although it is believed they could leave as early as next week. Even more unclear, Sweatt said, is when the contingent will return.

“Our main mission will be to help get the food out and transport our infantry guys,” Sweatt said. “There are mixed emotions about going, given that it is just 20 days before Christmas. But this is a good mission to do. We’re going to a country that is devastated. We have a chance to do some good things.”

She said the local contingent would play a key role in providing helicopter and other air transport for supplies and troops throughout Somalia. Already, Sweatt said, Marines were being trained to deal with the difficult conditions that plague the region.

“We’re preparing Marines to deal with the death that they are going to see,” she said. “From a psychological standpoint, they have to be prepared for things like that, just like they would need to be prepared for combat.”

On Saturday, meanwhile, other officials were attempting to prepare the families and loved ones who will be left behind.

About 200 troops and their families crowded into a Tustin Marine Corps Air Station auditorium for an hourlong briefing on the various support services available to them during the indefinite deployment. There were presentations on needs ranging from medical services and support groups to available outlets for baby furniture and food.

In a booming speech to an assembly where fidgety children sat on the laps of nervous parents, Lt. Col. Dan Spurlock urged military families to begin taking care of their urgent needs.

“Leave nothing to chance, be you with or without wives or special others,” said Spurlock, commanding officer of Transport Helicopter Squadron 363, nicknamed the Red Lions. “We’re not leaving tomorrow, so you have time to work things out. Leave nothing to chance.”

Although the barrel-chested officer could not say when the Marines would return, he attempted to provide some words of inspiration for those who would travel with him and the family members who would not.

“You are going to be proud of this mission for the rest of your lives,” he told the assembly. “Somalia is in trouble. The United Nations has tried, but the difficulties are too large. Red Lions, we have some obstacles to overcome, but we need to get in there and make it happen.”

The local contingent will be part of the 28,000 troops the United States has committed to the strife-torn East African nation.

Friday, President Bush described the mission as “God’s work” and necessary to ensure the delivery of food shipments that have been the target of heavily armed hijackers.

On a cloudy Saturday afternoon, on the Tarmac at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, crews from the 466th Wolfpack Helicopter Squadron worked steadily to disassemble the giant CH-53 E Super Stallion helicopters. The troop and cargo carriers will be flown on C-5 Galaxy transports to Somalia.

It takes about eight hours to tear down each chopper, Sgt. Brian Trimble said, which has a capacity for 55 troops and 36,000 pounds of cargo.

Trimble, a 9 1/2-year veteran of the Marine Corps, is not happy about spending another Christmas away from home and far from his wife and three children. A fourth child is due March 4, and the Somalia duty will be his fourth deployment of longer than six months in the past three years.

“They are upset,” Trimble said of his family.

Last December, the sergeant was in the Persian Gulf, where he transported troops and supplies. He doubts that U.S. forces will leave Somalia before President-elect Clinton takes office.

“We were in Desert Storm, we know better than that,” he said, adding that he never thought he would be part of a humanitarian mission when he enlisted.

Like most of his colleagues, Trimble also does not know what to expect, other than possibly the all-too-familiar television images of starvation and disease.

“I don’t know,” he said. “They’ve got rifles to shoot at us. The threat is different than it was in the Gulf. Here, the health hazard is the biggest threat to us. . . . They have .22 rifles, I’m less worried about those.” Top concerns include diseases that are related to the lack of water and poor sanitary conditions.

Sgt. Miguel Castaneda of New Mexico served with Trimble in Desert Storm, but as of Saturday he did not have orders for Somalia.

“I’m doing whatever they say,” Castaneda said. “If I’m here for Christmas, I’m here. If I’m not, I’m not.”

The hardest part, the 31-year-old Marine said, is preparing his family for possibly another Christmas away from home.

He said his three daughters, ages 9, 8 and 5, kept asking, “Why?”

“I tell them, ‘That’s my job in the Marine Corps.’ ”